IT’S THE USUAL STORY

Tim Blair

–,
Friday,
January,
18,
2013,(10:44am)

The Greens are calling for room in the federal budget to help young artists make a living and support risk-taking art.

So they want a safety net for risk-takers. Makes sense in GreensWorld.

‘’I think that in Australia it’s the usual story where so many artists struggle to make a living and they’re trying to work two or three jobs in order to be able to keep a roof over their heads, while they pursue the love that they have for their art,’’ Senator Milne told Fairfax Media.

Artists are working three jobs? Sounds like the private sector is already providing all the funding these creative types require.

I would have said that muhamad portraits were risk taking art, but I am sure none of the “progressive” artists would even attempt that.

Artists, in my humble opinion, are born.
You either have the talent or you don’t.
You are either good enough for people to buy your art. I which case go for it, and don’t forget to pay your taxes.
Or you are not good enough, except on govt. welfare. In which case get a real job. Maybe do your art as a sideline.
I have some experience of the situation. Am now in my seventies.

Rob, I hear you. I’m somewhat younger but chose not to pursue an art career because thirty years ago I weighed up the annual earnings and worked out I could not support a family on bugger all next to nothing. So buried my ambitions and signed up to an alternative career where I could support my family while dabbling as a hobby. Now waiting retirement for when I can become “a risk taker!” All I’m seeing here is the collective bleating of those to whom is an expectation that privilege is due - sorry, forgot for a moment, we are talking about bolshie arties are we not? Silly me, must not forget my place. Back to my crayons and stick men .

We can’t have these ‘artists’ (that term should be used loosely with these types) using up all their ‘energy’ on menial tasks like a real job when they can receive free money from taxpayers and putting their ‘energy’ to good use!

MONA, for all the hype, it is a bitter disappointment. It is dark and tasteless. I would rather listen to Rudd, Gillard & Swan speeches for 5 hours all going at the same time than go back to that dysfunctional piece of ordinariness - but fortunately it is privately funded.

MiltonG replied to ilibcc
Fri 18 Jan 13 (12:29pm)

Milne knows the buzz Hobart gets from MONA (and its private patron) will be magnified 5-fold if she and her mates could dole out that sort of money.

If only the Medici paid more taxes and let a committee of politicians’ mates select deserving artists for support. Sure we would have lost Michalangelo & da Vinci, but dream what might have been ...

Artists!

How about end funding for the arts, let them be purely independent! The good artists who can sell their works will survive and prosper; their work will be more widely appreciated, loved and respected, the non-competitive and downright offensive artists will wither and die, to be heard of no more.

Society will benefit, as objects of beauty are brought into the world for peoples’ pleasure not for some political message, the good artists will benefit as there work will be in demand and can be sold at high process. Art, after all, is only art if the society values it for itself, not what it represents or how the originator used it to express an ideology. The work should stand or disappear on its own merits not some cockeyed view by a sap sucking societal aphid.

Oh, and while we are at it, let’s use a can or two of bug-spray on the aphids in our society, lest the flower of our civilisation wither and die.

Dan, let us just say I’ m an old fashioned girl who thinks artists should at least be able to draw stick figures.

And where does it say that art is a full time profession? When your art skills are commercially acceptable enough to support you without government support you are an artist, or you dabble in art and join everyone else in real Australia.

My niece paints, not badly, and during the day is a librarian. When on holidays she goes to exhibitions and galleries. She earns a living and supports herself.

Perhaps some of the Greens’ budding young artists are using the sides of buses and trains as their canvas. Instead of always wanting a handout they could find somthing that they could do properly and stick to it.

No, no, the mining industry makes bad underground noise. The US Navy makes the bad underwater sounds. It’s important to lefties to get the culprits right.

W154 replied to cuckoo
Fri 18 Jan 13 (04:41pm)

Oh man, you are so uncool! Every body knows underwater drumming is just so infra-dig. I really loved those 30 minute drum solos at concerts back in the 70s, can’t wait to see them underwater. I have booked my flight to Hobart and have the wetsuit, flippers and air tanks packed. Hope I get a front row anchor point in the drum tank.

I’m all for it providing I can get a safety net to allow me to leave my job and pursue my love of fishing.

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